Evangelism is the art of preaching the Good News which was brought by Jesus Christ o whom the Christian religion emanated from.
It is worth noting that Christ Himself is not the founder of the Christian religion rather it was His teachings that gave rise to or birthed the Christian religion.
However, Christian simply means the follower of Christ, and to follow Christ, one must be acquainted with and believe His teachings or messages which is also known as the gospel.
So when we talk about evangelism, we are referring to the art of using what Christ Himself and His early disciples who were opportune to expand His teachings said to try and convert others to the Christian religion.
Another word for evangelism is ‘soul winning’ because Christians believe that those who are not conversant with the gospel are lost in sin and the end goal of evangelizing to them is to help them see the dangers of their sinful lifestyle and repent of them by turning to Christ who is going to forgive them.
When Christ Himself began His ministry on earth, His very first theme of evangelism was: “repent for the kingdom o God is at hand”. (Mathew 3:2).
And before He ascended to heaven after His resurrection He also commanded His disciples to preach about repentance and the forgiveness of sin (Luke 24:45-47).
So when we look at the whole scenario, we will have the understanding that evangelism is the very force that drives the Christian religion because without it there will be no multiplication of the believers or followers of Jesus Christ.
In this sermon therefore, I am going to help you have an understanding off the importance of evangelism as well as how evangelism is important to Christians and also to God.
Without much ado, let’s get into this.
The importance or evangelism.
Evangelism is very important because it helps Christians to tell unbelievers about God and the way of salvation which He has made available and possible through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Now when we talk about salvation, we simply mean that the whole human race lost their way through the lead o their first parents, Adam and Eve, but God brought His Son down from heaven to act as the second parent who will show them the way back to God.
And this way back to God is not here on earth rather it is the saving of the human soul when it finally departs from the earthly flesh. For Jesus Himself make it known before His death that He must go to the Fathers mansion and prepare the houses for His followers, and after He sis done He will come and take them down there to be with Him forever. (John 14:1-4).
Thus, evangelism should place so much importance on the need for human beings to turn away from toeing the paths of their first parents, Adam and Eve, and rather emulate Christ so that when their earthly body returns to dust where it was taken they will inherit an everlasting home in God’s mansion with Jesus Christ as their eternal King.
The scripture makes it clear in Ecclesiastes 12:7 that at the point of a human death, the body returns back to dust from whence it came while the spirit returns to God who made it.
This revelation aligns with the creation story in Genesis 2:7 where God created human beings from the dust of the ground and afterward blew the breath of life into their nostrils for them to become living souls.
To this end, there are two sets of beings that evangelism is important to and they are Christians and God. So let’s move on to see why evangelism is important to Christians and how important is evangelism to God.
Why evangelism is important to Christians.
Evangelism is very important to Christians because it helps them spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to convert more followers to the Christian religion. This is the same thing as saying that evangelism helps Christians to multiply through the teachings of Jesus Christ.
The main theme and focus of evangelism should be on repentance and the forgiveness of sins When Jesus Himself began His ministry on earth His first words were “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand”. (Mathew 4:17).
And before His ascension He commanded the disciples to go and preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins to the multitude. (Luke 24:45-47).
Christians consider the unbelievers to be lost due to their sinful lifestyle, and when Christ stated in Luke 19:10 that He came to find that which was lost, Christians believe that they have been commissioned by Jesus Christ to help Him find those lost souls.
And the means of doing so is through His teachings, which some refer to as gospel or Good News.
Thus, Christians should aim to convert more people to their religion by way of evangelism.
How important is evangelism to God.
Evangelism is very important to God because it enables Him to reveal the plan of salvation He has for mankind through the teachings of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ.
In John 1:49-50 Jesus reveals: For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
And in Mark 13;11 He encourages His followers in the same theory: But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
And all this means that God has given Jesus and His followers the words they are going to use in converting human beings to the Christian faith.
In the creation story recorded in Genesis 1, we see how mankind had a very strong relationship with God, but after their disobedience, that relationship was severed and mankind was evicted from the Garden of Eden where he lived and enjoyed all things.
But at His own set time, God sent His Son the Lord Jesus Christ to reconcile mankind back to Himself. (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
And it s by way of evangelism that this reconciliation is made possible. That is why evangelism is vey important too God.
